Belmont and Evansville square off for conference showdown

Evansville Purple Aces (5-12, 1-5 MVC) at Belmont Bruins (11-7, 6-1 MVC)

Nashville, Tennessee; Friday, 7:30 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Camryn Runner and Evansville visit Jailyn Banks and Belmont on Friday.

The Bruins have gone 5-1 in home games. Belmont is eighth in the MVC in rebounding averaging 31.9 rebounds. Kendal Cheesman paces the Bruins with 7.2 boards.

The Purple Aces are 1-5 against MVC opponents. Evansville is eighth in the MVC scoring 64.6 points per game and is shooting 37.0%.

Belmont is shooting 40.4% from the field this season, 2.4 percentage points lower than the 42.8% Evansville allows to opponents. Evansville averages 64.6 points per game, 1.5 more than the 63.1 Belmont gives up to opponents.

The Bruins and Purple Aces face off Friday for the first time in MVC play this season.

TOP PERFORMERS: Banks is scoring 13.5 points per game with 3.9 rebounds and 2.9 assists for the Bruins. Tuti Jones is averaging 12.2 points and 3.4 rebounds while shooting 47.9% over the past 10 games.

Maggie Hartwig is scoring 16.5 points per game with 8.9 rebounds and 0.8 assists for the Purple Aces. Runner is averaging 14 points and 3.5 assists over the past 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Bruins: 7-3, averaging 70.4 points, 32.1 rebounds, 14.5 assists, 7.9 steals and 2.1 blocks per game while shooting 42.4% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 62.3 points per game.

Purple Aces: 3-7, averaging 63.5 points, 31.5 rebounds, 12.7 assists, 7.7 steals and 2.7 blocks per game while shooting 36.3% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 74.6 points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

The Associated Press